Rochester Latino Theatre Company’s “W.A.C. Iraq” takes a complicated subject and presents it in a simple, powerful way. This
tribute to Latina women in the Armed Forces who have served in Iraq honors
their contributions, details their sacrifices, and asks some disturbing
questions about a country that gives poor women opportunities in the military
and often takes them away when they return from service. The format is a dialogue
between a distraught G.I. (Jay O’Leary) and a kindly operator in a military
base call center (Denise Herrera), interrupted by a monologue from a proudly
patriotic young Latina soldier (Wednesday Mann), and concluded with a
powerful, paradoxical monologue accompanying pictures of Latina soldiers in
Iraq. It may not sound like much on paper, but it is affecting and effectively
performed, particularly by O’Leary.
The Rochester Latino Theatre Company will perform “W.A.C.
Iraq” again on Saturday, September 27, at RAPA. 6 p.m. $15.
If any woman’s life could fill up a solo show, it is surely
that of Sarah Bernhardt, the great dramatic actress of the late 19th and
early 20th centuries. The reigning theatrical diva in an age that boasted
plenty of them — and one of those fabulous self-invented Frenchwomen like
Colette and Chanel — Bernhardt knew adventure, scandal, and glamor. You
get a vague sense of all that fabulousness in “Bernhardt on
Broadway,” playing at MuCCC and written
(book, music, and lyrics) and performed by the industrious Carol Dunitz, but alas, it adds up to a shapeless and only
occasionally diverting show.
The title suggests that Bernhardt (who I don’t think ever
appeared on Broadway) was a sort of Belle Époque Ethel Merman, and in Dunitz’s play the Divine Sarah seems more like a music
hall star than a great tragedienne, going from name-dropping Victor
Hugo and Cornelius Vanderbilt to singing jaunty ditties, blowing kisses to
the audience, and lifting her skirts to show a bit of leg. (These songs include
a Piaf-like setting of Bernhardt’s great set piece, a speech from Racine’s
“Phedre,” which I can only describe as a
camp classic.) Dunitz’s French accent ranges
from piquant to impenetrable, but she has an appealing enough
personality and her singing does have a bit of Gallic tang. And she
navigates the whole affair with great confidence.
“Bernhardt on Broadway” will be performed again on Sunday,
September 21, at MuCCC. 7 p.m. $16.
This article appears in Sep 17-23, 2014.
